The Long Goodbye
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Movie Reviews of The Long Goodbye
Movie Review: Elliot Gould Did This and Now He's on Friends?
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great noir and one of my favorite Altman films. What I really love about Altman is how amazingly accuratly he caputures the essence of each of the times and places that he creates in. It's a twisted fun flick and Gould was one hottie. Who knew?Movie Review: Excellent film
Summary: 5 Stars
I think this is Altman at his best and Elliot Gould at his Best. Very Funny.Movie Review: Altman's convoluted noir mystery
Summary: 4 Stars
Robert Altman's career essentially began with 1970's "MASH," and a mere three years later Altman had already established an ecclectic bunch of films, including his reimagining of the western genre, "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," and his stab at horror, "Images." Altman next set out to revitalize the long-dormant film noir with an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's "The Long Goodbye," a Philip Marlowe mystery. Marlowe had previously been portrayed by the likes of Dick Powell in "Murder, My Sweet" and most memorably by Humphrey Bogart in Howard Hawks' "The Big Sleep," which Bogey starred in opposite wife Lauren Bacall.
For his Philip Marlowe, Altman made a choice only he could have made: Elliott Gould, who had previously appeared as the rambunctious "Trapper" John McIntyre in "MASH." Needless to say, it was a curious decision, but one that - for this film at least - works and works well. Gould's Marlowe is unlike any other. He's considerably more upbeat his predecessors, and he talks to himself almost incessently. He lacks the cool and the confidence one expects in the role, and he lets himself get pushed around without putting up a fight. He is also dedicated to one thing and one thing alone: his cat. But for Altman's film, a convoluted, surreal neo-noir, Gould is perfect. His performance captures the displacement and nostalgia a person like Marlowe feels living in the 1970s (Altman updated the setting from Chandler's novel, which was set in the 1950s). While the other characters have big hair and leisure suits and baggy pants, Gould walks around in an old-fashioned suit and drives around in an automobile that can't have been manufactured after the 1950s. Altman stated that while he was envisioning the film, he nicknamed his Marlowe "Rip van Marlowe." The name fits.
The supporting cast includes Nina van Pallandt as the mysterious Eileen Wade, who does better in her role than any big-name actress could, as well as Sterling Hayden, who roars and grumbles like an angry bear as alcoholic writer Roger Wade. Henry Gibson is the sleazy, odd Dr. Verringer, and Jim Bouton is the obnoxiously cheery and foolish Terry Lennox. Young Arnold Schwarzenegger also appears toward the end of the film as an enormous bodyguard for Mark Rydell's ratty mobster.
One of the most interesting aspects of the film is that it was written by Leigh Brackett, who also co-wrote the screenplay for Hawks' "The Big Sleep" (although reportedly Robert Altman made numerous changes to the script, something he's rather infamous for doing). "The Big Sleep" remains the best and one of the most faithful adaptations of a Chandler novel, but Altman's "The Long Goodbye" has little in common with its brilliant source material. The complex plot of the book has been trimmed down to a thread, and a frequently incomprehensible thread at that. By the end of the film, we have at least a loose grasp of what has happened. And though the film's shock ending will no doubt infuriate fans of Chandler's work, it's a major part of what makes Altman's film so unique.
In the end, that's exactly what "The Long Goodbye" is: not a Chandler adaptation, nor a Philip Marlowe mystery, but a Robert Altman film. Altman is the real star of the film. He's often been occused of focusing more on what the film looks like than what the film is about, and if ever there was a film in which Altman was guilty of that, it's this one. He's more focused on making a shady noir film and not focused enough on crafting an intriguing mystery to go along with it (the intriguing mystery, if there is one, is just what the hell is going on). That's enough to make "The Long Goodbye" float, though, through Altman's tight angles, the murky photography, Gould's neurotic performance, and the theme song by a young John Williams, which appears in different variations at a number of points in the film (it's also the only music in the movie). Despite its flaws, "The Long Goodbye" had enough points of brilliance to earn it classic status, and interestingly enough, it accomplished Altman's goal of revitalizing the noir genre, paving the way for films like Roman Polanski's "Chinatown" and Arthur Penn's "Night Moves." It may not quite be a masterpiece, but as Marlowe says repeatedly, "It's okay with me."
Movie Review: A very good Robert Altman movie
Summary: 4 Stars
Robert Altman's film of Raymond Chandler's THE LONG GOODBYE has been called one of the 1970's greatest films and a knockout by Pauline Kael, but Leonard Maltin only gives it a **1/2 (out of ****) and says its jokey approach to the mystery genre borders on contempt. I have a fondness for it because I like both Los Angeles and Altman's movies.
Made in 1973, between the towering masterpieces McCABE AND MRS. MILLER (1971) and NASHVILLE (1975), GOODBYE at very least has one of the greatest opening scenes Altman has ever made. It is 3:00 a.m. in West Los Angeles, and private eye Philip Marlowe (Elliot Gould) gets a wake up call from a cat who is hungry. There is no cat food in his apartment, so he heads to an all night market. He is stopped by strippers making marijuana brownies in a nearby apartment: "Oh, Mr. Marlowe, Mr. Marlowe, would you mind getting us some brownie mix? We will save you some." "Sure thing, girls," Marlowe calls back as he lights the fifth or sixth of about a thousand cigarettes he smokes during 112 minutes of movie. Then at the market, Marlowe keeps muttering, "Damned cat needs food. It's 3:00 in the goddam morning, and my goddam cat needs food." As best I can tell, he does remember to get the brownie mix for his friendly insomniac neighbors. It is a fabulous sequence, backed by a stunning bluesy title song by John Williams and Johnny Mercer. This is the city of lost souls and where no one really sleeps.
I don't remember any of this being in Chandler's 1953 novel, which is also set in 1953 and not 1973. But I think it would amuse him. What IS in the book, I am pretty sure, is the next sequence of scenes: Marlowe drives friend Terry Lennox (Jim Boulton) to Tiajuana in the wee hours, then is interrogated by cops at dawn back at Marlowe's apartment. It seems that Terry Lennox's wife Sylvia has been murdered tonight. Backed by a smokey jazz instrumental score by John Williams at his very best, this crime is at the heart of a novel I love.
But there is another crime: missing person bureau. An alcoholic writer (bearded Sterling Hayden) named Wade has vanished, seemingly to an exclusive Malibu Beach Colony apartment to be alone with his writing. His wife (a fabulous and very beautiful Nina van Pallandt) wants him back. The trail here leads to a sinister psychiatrist (an imaginatively cast Henry Gibson) and a hyperactive mob boss named Marty Augustine (Mark Rydell) as the two crimes are weaved together. Mrs. Wade wants her husband back, and Augustine wants his mob money back. Agustine certainly has psychotic methods of getting his way, including smashing a Coke bottle in his innocent mistress' face, leaving her a bloody pulp beyond anything in any GODFATHER film. (An unfazed Kael ludicrously compares the horrible crime to Cagney smashing a grapefruit in mistress Mae Clarke's face in THE PUBLIC ENEMY.) Augustine's next line is comic nasty and addressed to Marlowe: "Now that's someone I love. You I don't even like." The crime almost derailed the last third of a very good movie for me.
In the last third of THE LONG GOODBYE, which is exquisitely photographed in Panavision by the great Vilmos Zsigmond, we travel around different very fresh West Los Angeles spots I remember fondly from UCLA college days in 1973. This is one of the great Los Angeles movies, as is another Altman masterpiece, SHORT CUTS (1993). We solve the disappearance of Wade in an unforgettable visual poetry scene I don't want to spoil for you. And we solve the murder of Sylvia Lennox and the puzzle of why Terry is hiding out...where he is hiding out. A movie that opens with a jazzy instrumental rendition of "Hooray For Hollywood" ends with a scratchy vocal recording of that song as...something happens that I find satisfying while others have found controversial.
Does Marlowe get his brownies? Does Elliott Gould still smoke like Bogart? Except for Marty Augustine's savage temper (cover your face during the horrible Coke bottle scene), I really like what Robert Altman and credited writer Leigh Brackett have done to update a great Raymond Chandler novel. It fondly evokes the Los Angeles I loved while a college student at UCLA in the early 1970's. And the cast is impeccable. See THE LONG GOODBYE on widescreen DVD, then read the novel. Or vice-versa.
Movie Review: A fine movie...and it's possible to enjoy Altman's Philip Marlowe as much as Chandler's Philip Marlowe
Summary: 4 Stars
Terry Lennox has a problem. He's in trouble and needs help getting out of the country. Who else can he go to than one of his best friends, Philip Marlowe? All he asks is that Marlowe drive him down to Tijuana...right now. Marlowe, a private eye who probably has few good friends other than Lennox, does it. When Marlowe gets back hours later, he's picked up by the cops, knocked around, jailed and finally released. It seems Terry's wife has been beaten to death and the police want to know where Terry is. Marlowe doesn't believe that his friend is a killer and decides he'll look into the case. He also is hired by the sexy Eileen Wade to find her missing husband, the aging alcoholic writer Roger Wade. Funny, Marlowe finally decides, that the Wades live very close to the Lennox house in an exclusive, gated Malibu enclave (with a private cop at the gate who does a good imitation of Barbara Stanwyck). Then Marlowe is forced into a private conversation with the gangster Marty Augustine...something about a missing $50,000 of Augustine's that Lennox supposedly had and that Augustine wants back. Marlowe is taught how vicious Augustine can be in one violent act so startling it'll make your stress level rise every time Augustine shows up. Marlowe finally puts all the pieces together, slowly and persistently, until he finds himself in Mexico for probably the last time.
Is this really Philip Marlowe we're watching? Well, it's Robert Altman's Philip Marlowe, which means Raymond Chandler probably wouldn't recognize him. Is this a bad thing? Not at all. Altman (and Elliot Gould as Marlowe) has put his own imprint on the iconic gumshoe. Marlowe is often just confused by things. He's laid back, quizzical, good-natured in a reasonably skeptical way, not quite a loser, maybe not too smart the first time around but he learns and he is not going to stop looking for answers. The mystery has a vague resemblance to the bones of Chandler's book, but Altman isn't as much concerned with the trajectory of Mrs. Lennoxes murder as he is with the interplay of Marlowe and those he meets, and in how the story evolves from that interplay.
Altman put together a vivid cast. Gould would probably be glaringly miscast as a Marlowe played tough and straight. As Altman's Marlowe, however, he's the glue that holds the movie together and provides that strange Altman mixture of almost sly humor and drama. The byplay between Marlowe and his hungry cat and between Marlowe and the three luscious yoga practitioners in the next apartment lets us settle into this new-model Marlowe. Sterling Hayden as Roger Wade gives a roaring, dynamic, foul-mouthed performance. The scenes he shares with the small, precise and sleazy Dr. Verringer played by Henry Gibson are almost surreal in the disparity between the two actors' physical sizes and acting styles. Gibson, with a terrible comb-over, holds his own. When he slaps Hayden full in the face, it's almost as startling as what Augustine does with a glass Coke bottle. Nina Van Pallandt does a fine job as the complex and compelling Eileen Wade. We're no more sure of her game than Marlowe is, but he's got enough sense not to fall for her. Jim Boulton as Terry Lennox doesn't have a lot of screen time, but you'll remember him.
The end of the movie, when Marlowe puts the pieces together and provides his own sad justice, left me thinking...but about what, I'm not sure. About the nature of friendship, I guess...how friendship doesn't necessarily work both ways, even when you think it does. Altman has given us a first-rate movie that goes well beyond a private eye caper. Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe is a fine creation. So is Robert Altman's. This is a film worth watching several times.
The movie has a slightly washed out look which was created purposefully by Altman and his cinematographer, Vilmos Zsigmond. There are several extras which I didn't sample, including a discussion with Altman and Gould.